


Blindsided

by stellarmeadow



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Case Fic, Episode Related, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-23 17:23:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1573742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarmeadow/pseuds/stellarmeadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What do you do when your life gets hacked?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This one has taken a long time to write--it fought me all the way. Hopefully the result was worth it! Huge thanks to smudgegirl for all the cheerleading!

Steve stretched lazily, his arms tightening around Danny's body in the process. It was still a surprise, and a little disorienting, to wake up with Danny in his bed. He'd dreamed about it for so long that the reality of waking to it took some getting used to.

He was only too happy to get used to it. He looked forward to the day where, once in a while, he even took it for granted. 

That it had taken the CIA bringing a building down on their heads, along with the Taliban to bring it about was a story he was absolutely sanitizing before he told it to Gracie's kids one day.

However they'd gotten there, he was grateful. He was also taking it one day at a time, ignoring the voices in his head that said it wasn't really real if nobody else knew. Nobody else needed to know. They knew. That was all that mattered. 

He inhaled deeply, letting the smell of Danny soothe him back towards sleep. He'd just get a little more rest and then he'd go for a swim. Or maybe stay in bed for other exercise.

Danny stirred, his thigh moving between Steve's legs as Danny blinked up at him, his blue eyes bright in the morning sunlight. That was all it took to push all thoughts of sleep out of Steve's head. He smiled, leaning in for a kiss. "Morning," Steve said.

"Morning." Danny's voice was still rough with sleep, the sound of it going straight to Steve's cock. "I see you're--" Danny paused for a yawn, "up early," he finished, nudging Steve's half-hard cock with his leg.

"Sorry, am I boring you?" Steve teased as his hand slid across Danny's hip. 

"Nope." Danny's hand gripped Steve's ass, pulling him in closer as Danny's cock brushed Steve's. "Not boring at all."

Steve grinned. "Oh good. Because if you wanted to sleep or had somewhere to be, we could stop."

"Don't you dare."

The phone was the most unwelcome sound Steve could've heard, but he couldn't ignore it, not when it might be a case--and with his phone settings this time of day, it couldn't be much else. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against Danny's for a second before reaching behind him for the phone on the nightstand. "McGarrett."

"Are you watching the news?" Chin asked without preamble.

"No, why?"

"Shit. Steve...channel two is running a story on your mom."

Steve sat up. "What?!"

"Breaking news story about how one of Hawaii's own faked her death and has been living a whole other life."

"Hang on." Steve got up and hurried down the stairs. He could hear Danny right behind him as he turned on the TV.

"--just how Doris McGarrett managed to remain dead all these years, but sources say she's currently out of the country and refuse to elaborate. McGarrett, of course, is the widow of Detective Jack McGarrett of Honolulu PD and mother of Five-0 task force head, Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett. And now for the weather--"

Steve muted the TV and looked at Danny, who was staring back at him like he thought he might be dreaming. He heard a noise, and it took him a minute to figure out that it was the phone. "Sorry, Chin," Steve said. "I was watching the rest of the report. What did they say before that?"

"Not a lot. Quoted a lot of 'sources.' Kono texted me to say she's going straight to the station. I'm going to join her. We thought given the circumstances, you might not want to go."

Oh he wanted to. He just didn't think it was wise. Which was probably Chin's real meaning, he realized. "Thank you," Steve said. "Let me know what you find out."

"Will do." Chin hesitated. "Do you have any way to get in touch with her?"

"No, but I'll make some calls." Some being one. To Joe. Because he'd lost his only other contact.

"Okay. I'll let you know as soon as we find out anything at the station. "

"Thanks, Chin."

Steve ended the call and looked at Danny helplessly. "Danny--"

"I know." Danny reached up to squeeze Steve's shoulder. "We're not going to let anything happen to her."

"How can we stop it? She's been exposed, and while she's working an undercover op God knows where with who knows how little support? She could die in some foreign place and I'd spend the rest of my life wondering if she was dead, or just afraid to talk to me and never came back!"

Danny's hand stayed on Steve's shoulder, anchoring him. "Call Joe," he said. "Start there. We'll do everything we can, all right?"

Steve nodded, but before he could make the call, the phone rang again, this time with the Governor's number. "McGarrett."

"Commander," the Governor's assistant said. "He wants to see you. Now."

She didn't even wait for a response, she just hung up. "The Governor wants to see me," Steve said. 

"Probably wants to make sure you're not planning to run off to North Korea."

It was meant as a joke, but it hit a little close. "I would."

"I know. And so does he." Danny rubbed Steve's shoulder a little before letting go. "You shouldn't keep him waiting."

"Right." Steve leaned in for a kiss. "I'll call you when I'm done," he said before jogging up the stairs to change.

***

Steve tried to call Joe from the truck, but got his voicemail each of the three times he called on the way to the governor's office. When he arrived, he was ushered straight into the governor's office without so much as a word from his assistant. The governor looked up from a folder on his desk, eyeing Steve gravely. "Good morning, Commander."

"Good morning, sir."

"I'm sorry to rush you down here, but I received information this morning that I thought you needed to see immediately."

"Sir, if this is about my mother, it's already on the news."

The Governor frowned. "Your mother?"

"The story on the news about her being alive." When he saw the governor's confusion, Steve said, "That's not why I'm here."

"No, though it makes this even harder, given your current situation." He tapped the folder with his finger a few times. "Maybe you should sit down."

Steve shook his head immediately. "No, thank you."

"Okay." The governor picked up the file and handed it to Steve. "This was delivered to me first thing this morning by FedEx."

Steve opened the folder. It took a moment for the lines of text to actually make sense, because he'd seen them before, just not in print. He'd seen them on his own phone. They were texts between him and Danny, texts that were...personal, in nature. To say the least.

Texts that the governor had now read.

Steve felt the tips of his ears burning as he flipped through the pages, trying not to think about the particularly explicit ones.

"I stopped reading a few lines in, as soon as I realized what it was." The governor's voice was soft, tinged with regret. "My people have already checked with FedEx, but it was paid in cash and the name and address of the sender is fake." 

Steve nodded, swallowing against the bile in his throat. "What do they want?" he asked. Because there was no other explanation for this than blackmail.

"Five men serving life sentences in Halawa released from prison by five pm today, or they're going to send these to every news outlet in Honolulu." Steve both appreciated and hated the governor's continued careful tone. "Commander, you know I can't--"

"Of course not," Steve said, snapping his eyes up to meet the Governor's. "I wouldn't expect it or want it." He took a deep breath. "I am not ashamed of any of this," he said, holding up the folder. "If the blackmailer thought I would be, then he doesn't know me."

The governor nodded. "I'm not worried about a scandal," he said. "This state is supportive of equal rights for everyone. There will be questions, and comments, and some not-so-nice things said, though, you have to know that."

"I do."

"I would like you and Detective Williams to meet with my PR director today."

The man was worried about PR? Steve clenched his fists, ready for a fight. "I'm not putting some kind of political spin on this, sir."

"No one's asking you to, Commander. But she can give you some guidance on how to answer the questions so that Detective Williams' daughter is less likely to be hearing sordid details on the evening news."

The governor went straight for the jugular, Steve thought. Grace had been his biggest concern. He wasn't ashamed, but that didn't mean he wanted Danny's little girl reading these. "Can we stop it?"

"The story itself? No," the governor said. "But the content? I am doing what I can to ensure it doesn't get out through legitimate news sources once he releases it to the press. But if they go on the internet...."

It would be all over the place in no time. Steve closed his eyes, needing a minute to focus, to prioritize. "I have to go find out what I can about my mother," he said, eyes open again and focused on the governor. "Her life takes priority over this," he said, holding up the folder.

"Of course. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help." 

"Thank you, I will. And thank you for letting me know about this so quickly."

"Of course. I'll have Kyla, my PR director, call you. I know you need to take care of your mother, but please do your best to at least talk with Kyla today."

Steve nodded and turned to go before a thought occurred to him. He turned back to the governor. "Sir, I know HPD has fraternization rules, but...."

"Five-0 has special rules, Commander, I've accepted that, to a point. And from everything I've seen, whatever relationship you and Detective Williams have has made you excellent partners. I don't think breaking that up would do the state any good."

Something unclenched just a little in Steve's chest. "Thank you, sir."

"I hope your mother is all right."

Steve nodded one more time, feeling like a bobble head as he turned and strode out of the room.

***

Steve dropped his phone in his office and went straight to Danny's office when he got back to HQ. "Come on, we got a lead," Steve said, waiting for Danny to join him before turning around and heading for the exit. 

"What'd the governor say?" Danny asked as he fell into step beside Steve.

"I'll tell you on the way." Steve paused outside the men's room, looking around before opening the door and pulling Danny inside. Before Danny could get the question out, Steve leaned in for a kiss, using the distraction to pull out Danny's phone and drop it in the trash can just behind Danny. 

Danny was frowning at him when he ended the kiss. "Not that I'm complaining," Danny said, "but what was that?"

Steve shrugged. "I need a reason to kiss you?"

"To stop on the way to chase down a lead about your mother for one? Yes."

"You're right. We need to get going."

Steve turned and walked out of the restroom, hearing Danny right behind him. "You are a very strange person," Danny said as he caught up. "Anyone ever tell you that?"

"You," Steve said. "All the time."

He could feel Danny's stare on him all the way out of the building, but Steve didn't stop until they were halfway down the sidewalk to the car. He made a show of looking like he'd forgotten something, patting his pockets. "The governor had a blackmail threat this morning," Steve said, quietly, looking around carefully. "Someone dumped my phone. The threat contained a bunch of texts between us."

Danny's mouth thinned. "I'm assuming they weren't of the 'we're out of milk' variety."

Steve shook his head. "This combined with information surfacing on my mother..."

"It's not a coincidence."

"Probably not, no. I need you to go get Toast and bring him back so we can find out what equipment is compromised in the office and fix it. He can start with our phones."

"Wait." Danny felt his pocket, looking confused. "My phone is missing."

Steve nodded, pulling the keys out of his pocket at last. "I threw it in the bathroom trash so I could explain without worrying someone was listening. Mine's on my desk."

"So that's why you kissed me."

Steve smiled. "I'm only allowed to have one reason?" He handed the keys to Danny. "Make sure Toast checks the car before you leave his place. We don't talk about this anywhere we might be recorded until he's had a chance to clear everything."

"Got it." Danny twirled the keys around on his finger a couple of times. "What are you going to do?"

"Chin and Kono should be back soon. I'm going to see what they found out at the TV station."

Danny nodded. "I'll be quick."

"That'll be a first."

"Hey, this is so important I might even break a few speed limits."

"Oh, God, now I know we're in trouble."

Danny rolled his eyes, but his smile was warming before he turned and headed off to the car. Steve watched him go before he went back into the office.

***

Steve went back to his desk. The file from the governor was lying there, looking like every other innocent manila envelope they all had lying around on their desks, except for the part where it appeared to Steve as if it had a flashing neon sign on it.

He hadn't lied to the governor. He wasn't remotely ashamed of any of it. He and Danny were consenting adults with normal sex lives. DADT was history, and the governor had said outright it wasn't a problem.

But that didn't mean it wasn't a problem for Danny. Because while Steve didn't have anything to lose by these texts getting out, Danny had a daughter. It bothered Steve that Grace was going to have a hard time at school about this--he didn't kid himself for a second that she wouldn't--and if it bothered him, how much was it going to bother Danny?

And then there was the fact that whoever was doing this apparently wanted to get to Steve through the people he loved. It was his phone that had been dumped, his mother's life that was now in danger, his relationship with Danny that was about to be exposed.

The one thing Steve never wanted to be was a liability to the people he cared about.

Whoever was doing this had to be aware of that fact--though Steve was starting to wonder if there was some sort of secret criminal information stream that had a file on him with the first bullet advising them to go after his family. 

So whoever did this to him didn't really have to know him that well, he only had to know enough to find out what made Steve tick. And to hack into Steve's government firewall protected phone and track down a lot of electronic info on government computers about a CIA agent.

There weren't a lot of people who could do that, and of those, Steve could think of one who would be highly motivated and skilled enough to pull it off. 

Ian Wright.

He got up as he heard Kono and Chin talking as they came down the hall, meeting them on their way into the bullpen. "What did the station have to say?" Steve asked.

"A lot of legal mumbo jumbo about Constitutional rights and protecting sources," Kono said.

"And when that didn't work?"

She flashed a smile that reminded Steve of a shark. "When that didn't work, they let Chin clean all the evidence off their computers, while a particularly helpful intern collected all the hard copies for me."

Kono held up a thick file, carefully encased in an evidence bag, while Chin was putting a thumb drive into the computer table and pulling up info. "Their researchers had done such a nice job of organizing all the info that it seemed a shame to waste it," Chin said. "So I pulled everything off in nice, neat order." 

He tapped away on the screen, and a series of document scans appeared, many of them with lengthy redacted sections. "Their head researcher said that the redacted files taken separately don't really tell you much, but when you put them together, it's a clear picture. Especially when you have a road map explaining how everything goes together." 

Chin pulled up a document that laid out exactly how the files fit together and the wholly accurate picture they portrayed. It was jarring, seeing the story of his mother's deception and her activities before and since, including her current location.

Or what had been her current location; he had no doubt she'd moved as soon as the government found out about this.

"Did they agree to stop pursuing the story?"

"Not at first," Kono said. "But we explained about government agencies and laws and how having stolen government files on their computers was still illegal, even if they didn't steal them. And how the government might care less about prosecuting them if the station decided to cooperate." 

"Good." Steve stared at the documents again, frowning as he saw something familiar in the corner, mostly buried under a death certificate. He brought it to the front and realized it was one of the pictures of his mother's supposed death scene from twenty years ago. "This was only on our servers," he said, frowning up at Chin. "How did this get out?"

Chin shook his head. "It wasn't only on our servers. Mary took the picture with her phone."

"And deleted it." 

"And her phone probably had automatic back up and it's probably been lingering around in her phone company's servers for years."

The sheer amount of time and work it must have taken not to get all this information--he didn't doubt a hacker of this caliber knew how and where to find all this--but to sort through it and put the pieces together was staggering. It had to be someone really good and really motivated. 

And while he had plenty of enemies with the ability to hire a good hacker, this felt personal. He kept coming back to Wright. Not that he was mentioning that just yet. Even if Wright was the best suspect, it didn't make sense to just focus on him just yet. And if there was a chance their offices were compromised, Steve didn't want to give Wright the edge in knowing Steve had figured it out, any more than he wanted to give the little shit the ego boost of knowing he was the first one Steve thought of. 

"Kono," Steve said, "can you take the files to Fong? See if he can get anything off them, though as many hands as probably touched it at the station who knows what he'll find."

"You got it." She turned on her heel and hurried out of the office.

Steve frowned down at the table, looking at the picture of the bombing again. 

"What?" Chin asked him after a moment.

Steve blinked up at him. "Hm?"

"You've got that look."

"What look?"

"The 'I've got a theory and I don't like it' look."

Steve shrugged. "Just thinking," he said, pulling out his phone. "See if you can find any kind of traces of anything on those files that will lead us back to the person who send them," he said as he headed for his office. "I need to make a couple of calls."

***

Steve called his sister to ask about her phone, because if anyone was listening, that's what they'd be expecting him to do. He didn't want to do much else until he knew the lines were clear, because he didn't want to give anything else up to Wright--to the perp, he had to stop thinking so definitively about it being Wright until he knew for sure--if Wright didn't already know about it.

He was toying with the idea of going out and buying a burner when he heard voices in the hallway. He went to the door to see Kono walking in with Danny and Toast. "What's up?" Steve asked, watching Danny's face for any sign of what they'd figured out.

"Toast just came by to see if he could test some new equipment on our systems," Danny said. "

"Right," Toast said, his believability somewhere on level with a third grader in a school play. "I have this new software I built that tests for vulnerabilities on servers and I thought I'd give it a test run on Five-O's systems."

"He tried them outside," Danny said, "but didn't see any weird stuff from the wireless systems, so he wanted to try the hardwired ones."

Which made Steve feel a little better--at least their cameras were most likely safe. But Kono was staring at Toast with that look she got right before she threatened to maim someone in the rendition room if they didn't cough up a confession. "Sure, go ahead. Let us know if you find anything," Steve said as he pulled Danny's phone out of his pocket. "You left this here," Steve said, holding it out.

Danny took it. "Right." He looked at Toast, who stared at the phone like he'd forgotten his line. "Hey," Danny said, as if it had only just occurred to him, "does that stuff work on phones?"

"Yeah, let's try that first." 

Steve followed them into the bullpen, shaking his head at Kono's inquiring look. Toast put his bag that Steve assumed had his equipment in it down beside the computer table and laid Danny's phone on top of the table. Toast removed the back and pulled out the battery, squinting at the bottom of the battery before putting it aside. 

He poked around in what looked like the ordinary electronics board on the phone for a moment before his eyes went wide. He pulled a pair of tweezers out of his bag and pried something off the board and held it up, mouthing the word 'bug.'

Steve nodded, but shook his head as Toast mimed destroying it. "Is this going to take a while?" Steve asked, nodding at Toast to say yes.

"Uh, yeah, could take a little bit."

"Great. We're going to get some lunch. You can check our phones as well as the servers, and we'll bring you back some food." 

Toast nodded, already pulling equipment out of his bag as he gave them his lunch order. Kono and Chin handed their phones over, looking confused, but not questioning anything yet. The four of them left the building discussing lunch as if there was nothing odd going on at all. 

They were less than fifty feet from the building before Kono said, "What's going on?"

Steve kept walking, feeling Danny step a little closer, their arms brushing as Steve said, "My mother's exposure wasn't the only thing that happened this morning. The governor called me in first thing to let me know that he'd received a blackmail threat."

"What did someone find on the governor?" Chin asked.

"Not on the governor." Steve stopped and turned to face Chin and Kono, Danny still by his side. "Me. And Danny."

Kono's eyebrows shot up. "What?"

"Whoever this guy is, he dumped my phone, and he sent a bunch of texts between me and Danny to the governor threatening to release the texts to the press if the governor didn't release five convicted murderers from Halawa by five o'clock today."

"They had to know the governor wasn't going to release prisoners," Chin said.

Steve nodded. "I think that part was just to provide me with what they hoped would be personal embarrassment in front of the governor," he said. "The texts were, um...the content was--"

"The word you're looking for is 'sexts,' Kono said. "Pretty common word, boss."

"Uh..." Steve looked at Danny, who just shrugged. "Yeah. But how did you...."

Kono laughed, and even Chin cracked a smile. "Really?" Kono asked. "If you have that little respect for our observational powers, I wonder that you hired either of us, let alone kept us around."

Steve looked at Danny again, but he didn't look particularly bothered. Or surprised. Steve looked back at Chin and Kono. "It's that obvious?"

"Honolulu is full of honeymooners," Chin said. "We recognize the look."

Steve coughed. "Okay. Um...okay." He put that aside to deal with later. "So I take it that's not a problem?" he asked, though, because he had to.

"Seriously?" Kono said, and both she and Chin looked mildly offended. Well, Chin did. Kono looked like she was on her way to pissed. "It'll be a problem only if you don't let us plan the bachelor parties."

Steve choked this time, only Danny's warmth against his arm keeping him from turning and fleeing from this entire conversation. "We appreciate that," Danny said, nudging Steve with his elbow.

"We do," Steve added sincerely, giving each of them a smile. "So now that that's settled," he said, "while Toast figures out what else in our offices has been compromised, we need to figure out who's behind this and how we catch him."

"Him?" Kono said. "You think it's a him?"

Steve hesitated. "I've been trying not to focus on just one person," he said after a moment. "But I keep coming back to Ian Wright."

"The hacker you and Grover went after?" Chin asked.

Steve nodded. "We'll need to get Grover's phone and see if he's been tagged as well, but given Wright's little parting message to me at the ATM, I have a feeling it's mostly me."

"ATM?" Danny asked. 

Steve sighed at that tone. He knew he should've mentioned that. "I didn't think it was important at the time," Steve said, mentally preparing himself for the lecture about 'communication skills' he would get later, complete with copious hand-waving. "Come on," he said, starting to walk towards the restaurant again. "I'll explain over lunch."

"So, do we get to see the texts?" Kono asked.

"No," Steve and Danny replied in unison.

"But they might contain important hints at who is behind--" Steve whirled around, fixing her with a look that made her eyes go wide. "Or not," she said hastily.

He didn't allow himself a grin until he'd turned away from her again.

***

"So this guy basically threatens you through your own bank account," Danny says, his voice rising with each word, "and you didn't think that was important to share?"

Steve looked around the restaurant to avoid looking at Danny. "No," he said shortly, looking somewhere around Danny's ear. "I'm sorry, okay? I misjudged him."

"Oh, you misjudged him?"

Steve shrugged. "It happens."

"You misjudged him," Danny said, "and now he may be behind an attempt to get five murderers released from prison."

"I said I'm sorry, Danny, what more do you want?"

"Oh, trust me, Steven, I have a list."

"You know," Kono said, propping her chin on her hand and looking like she was about to order popcorn, "this whole bickering thing makes a lot more sense now that we know you're actually married."

Steve glared at her. "We are _not_ married."

"Really?" Kono said. "Because you sound like my parents every time Dad forgot to take the trash out."

"I'm gonna have to go with Kono on this one," Chin said. "You're pretty married." 

Steve grit his teeth together, unable to look at Danny as he said, "Can we please just get on with figuring out how to catch this guy?"

"Right, sorry," Chin replied. "So, you seem pretty sure it's Wright."

Steve shrugged "I'm not sure. I just keep coming back to him."

"Of course," Danny muttered, "Because why wouldn't you, what with the whole he threatened you and you didn't bother to tell anyone thing?"

"You're not letting that go anytime soon, are you?" Steve asked.

"No. Because you're supposed to share, remember? Communication is not just a degree they hand out at college, Steven."

"Guys," Kono interrupted, "not that the lover's spat isn't cute and adorable, and on another day I'd prop my feet up and thoroughly enjoy it, but in the interest of catching this guy before your whole sexting adventure gets posted text by embarrassing text on every internet site on the planet, maybe we could get back to the case?"

Steve looked at her. "You're right. Sorry."

"So what do we know for sure?" Chin said.

"We know that someone dumped my phone--"

"You're sure it was yours and not Danny's?" Chin asked.

Steve nodded. "The names on the texts were 'Me' and 'Danno'. Had to be my phone."

"Okay, so that's one thing," Kono said. "What else?"

"Well, the whole world now knows my mother is alive," Steve said, crumpling his napkin into a little ball in his fist. "And considering she tortured someone to try to keep that secret..."

"Wait," Kono said, leaning in. "She tortured someone to keep her secret?"

Steve nodded again. "This guy from her past, Mangosta, he found her. My mother tracked him down and tortured him to find out if anyone else knew she was alive."

"And she told you this?" Chin asked.

"No." Steve cleared his throat. "Catherine did. She said Mom was clearly terrified that someone else might know she was alive, and was prepared to go to any lengths to find out if they did."

Steve didn't realize how tightly he was gripping his napkin until he felt Danny's hand cover his. "Hey," Danny said softly, "your mom is good at taking care of herself. Nothing's going to happen to her."

"Right. Because the CIA is such a great operation."

Danny couldn't argue that one, but he gave Steve's hand a squeeze. "Your mom is a great operator." 

Which was true. Steve gave him what he hoped passed for something resembling his normal smile. "Anyway, whoever it was dumped my phone. And they either knew about my mother or had the ability to access CIA files that even I can't get." Not for lack of trying, either, but he left that part out. 

"So that narrows it down to either government or a hacker," Chin said.

"Or someone with the money to pay a hacker," Kono suggested.

"So all we're looking for is someone in the government, rich, or good with computers, who's pissed off at Steve," Danny said. "Perfect. We should be able to interview all those people in, what, a month?"

Steve glared at him. "You're hilarious."

"Who said I was kidding?" Danny shot back, but his eyes were warm, and so was his hand where it was still covering Steve's. Steve glanced down at Danny's hand, marveling that he was so casual about it in a public place, given the situation. He'd half expected Danny to run at the first sign of exposure. Stupid, really, considering Danny never ran from a fight, but....

"Kidding or not," Chin said, "we need to narrow it down a little more than that."

Steve started to gather the trash from the lunch he'd only picked at. "Maybe Toast knows more by now," he said. "Let's go find out.

***

Toast was putting Steve's phone back together when they walked in. "Dude," he said, "whoever has it in for you is good."

"Great," Steve said, dropping the bag with Toast's lunch in it on the corner of the computer table. "That's comforting. I assume since you're talking about it that everything's...." 

"Oh, yeah, not even the FBI could hear what we're saying right now. I cleaned your systems and your phones--yours and Jersey's anyway, nothing on the other two. I upgraded the security on all four of them though--that government stuff is a joke. Couldn't keep out a sixth grader."

"Also comforting," Danny said. "Did you find anything?"

Toast shrugged. "I found a lot of holes where someone had been digging around your servers, but they scrubbed their trail pretty good. No way to know if they copied anything, but I'd assume they did. Rest of the office was clean, so whoever it is must have been trusting the bugs in your phones to pick up anything they wanted to hear. Either that, or they had spyware on the office systems and cleaned up after themselves. I'm going to sift through what I found when I get back to the rest of my equipment and see if I can find any breadcrumbs, but I can't make any promises."

"Thanks, Toast." Steve took his phone and pocketed. "We appreciate it."

"Hey, better this than you asking me to go in and get myself killed again."

Steve raised an eyebrow. "Don't push your luck. Though now that you mention it, I do need a little more help, though."

"I'm not getting myself killed," Toast said quickly.

"I don't think you need to worry about that. We have a suspect, and if he's involved, then there's someone else who might be bugged, too. Can you check?"

"Sure. Is he here?"

Steve shook his head. "Chin, can you take Toast to see Grover then by your place?"

"My place?"

"Mine and Danny's phones were bugged--we need to cover all our bases, and that includes all of our houses, even if your phones were cleaned. So start with your house, then Kono's, then Danny and I will meet you at my place."

"Got it." Chin nodded at Toast. "Let's go."

As they were leaving, Steve turned to Kono. "Can you go check with Fong and see if he had any luck with the stuff from the station, then meet Chin and Toast at your place?"

"You got it." 

She turned and walked out, leaving Steve and Danny alone. "You okay?" Danny asked quietly.

Steve couldn't help the harsh laugh that escaped his throat. "Yeah, I'm great."

Danny stepped closer, nudging Steve's foot with his own. "Whatever happens, we can handle it, okay?"

"Yeah, we can, but what about Grace?"

"Grace will be fine. You think she hasn't been teased before?"

"Teasing is one thing, Danny," Steve said. "Having kids recite our graphic texts to her on the playground is another."

Danny shrugged. "She'll be fine."

"Danny, do you remember what some of those texts said? Because I read them this morning and...." Steve folded his arms over his chest. "It's not the kind of thing kids want to associate with their parents."

"I know, babe," Danny said, "but there's nothing we can do about it. And it's not like Grace isn't aware that we sleep together, and as much as I hate to admit it, I can't kid myself she doesn't have some idea what that involves."

"So you're perfectly okay with it then?"

"Of course not! I remember what kids are like. It kills me, the things she's already had to endure. I'd love to lock her up and shelter her from everything." 

Danny took a breath, visibly calming himself. "But I can't. And trust me, with everything Grace has been through, some kids teasing her on the playground about you and I texting each other is nothing. And I'll take her getting teased over kidnapped any day."

He had a point. Steve just hated the idea of being any part of something that caused Grace or Danny pain. "Denning wants us to talk to his PR person."

"He's worried about the spin on this?" Danny's tone said the answer to that better be no.

Steve shook his head. "That's what I thought, too, but he said he was actually worried about containing it so Grace might be spared some."

Danny blinked. "Really? Wow. I might actually have to vote for him in the next election."

Steve laughed softly. "Come on," he said, taking Danny by the arm as he headed for his office. "She's already left me a message. We might as well get the call over with."

***


	2. Chapter 2

Kyla, the PR genius, was every bit as good as the Governor's career suggested, but the call was also every bit as embarrassing as Steve had expected. He was grateful that by the time they finished, he and Danny were still alone in the office. Kono or Chin coming back while that was going on would've been more than he could take.

Steve ended the call and sunk back into his chair, looking across the expanse of his desk at Danny. "That," Steve said tiredly, "is something I would rather not have to go through again."

"Yeah, from now on, let's keep our phone sex to audio conversations only," Danny joked.

"Sure, because an audio recording would've been so much better than just having it in print."

Danny winced. "Touché." 

Steve gave him a long look. "You're being awfully calm about this," he said after a moment. "Are you okay?"

He could see Danny give the question some thought. "Honestly? I don't think it was real to me until that conversation. Having it laid out there so...explicitly....." He looked at Steve. "Fuck." Danny seemed to shrink into the chair a little. "This is gonna get ugly."

"Maybe." Steve watched Danny carefully. "You still okay?"

"Maybe not as much." Danny shook his head. "I don't like seeing her hurt because of what I do." 

"You didn't do this."

Danny waved a hand. "You know what I mean." 

"I do. And it's still not your fault."

"Yeah. But she'll still be hurt because of my job." Danny sighed. "It's not like it's not what I signed on for," he said dismissively. "But enough about that."

Steve could tell it was still bothering him, but it wasn't like talking was going to help. "Why, is there other news in the world today?"

"More old news, really. I didn't want to bring it up in front of anyone else, but...have you considered that maybe the CIA is behind this?"

It had crossed his mind, but he'd dismissed it quickly. "Doesn't really feel like them."

"Really? Stealthy spy stealing of our info, using the info to distract us just when you're on the path to possibly uncovering their secrets?"

Steve acknowledged that with a nod. "Why would they put their own operation in danger, though? Doris is working for them. It doesn't make sense that they would compromise their own op."

"Unless...."

He saw the reluctance on Danny's face, knew what he was thinking. "Unless?" Steve prodded. Because he needed to hear it.

"Unless the op was already compromised."

"You mean Doris has pissed off her own agency and they're ready to throw her to the wolves."

"I wasn't going to put it quite that way."

But it was what he meant nonetheless. "Okay, we have to consider the possibility," Steve said slowly. "But I don't think that's it."

"Because you trust your mother?"

He wished he could. "No. Because the CIA likes to clean up their messes much less obviously than this." A fact they'd had demonstrated to them many times over the past few months. If not for luck, in addition to all their digging, they probably still wouldn't know that the CIA--or at least former CIA, Steve still wasn't clear on that one--had been behind the bombing that had nearly killed them.

"Good point."

Danny didn't sound convinced, but he wasn't pushing the issue, so Steve didn't either. They had more important things to worry about anyway. "So what are you going to tell Grace?"

"No, what are _we_ going to tell Grace," Danny corrected him. 

"You want me to tell her with you?"

Danny raised his eyebrows. "You're not getting out of this so easy, my friend. We got into this together, we'll tell her together."

"I...I just thought you and Rachel..."

Danny's face softened. "Sorry," he said. "Relationships include the messy stuff."

Steve was absolutely fine with the messy stuff. He just hadn't been expecting it. "Of course," he said, stopping to clear his throat, "if we catch this person before five, we might not have to worry about it." 

"That would be preferable, yeah."

Steve heard footsteps and looked up to see Kono coming through the door to his office. "Am I interrupting anything?" she asked, the look on her face making it clear she'd be disappointed if she wasn't.

"No. What did Fong say?"

"He found prints. Most of them matched up to the ones from the station employees, but there was one they weren't able to match up with anyone we knew to look for--and yes, before you can ask, that includes Ian Wright." 

"So we're back at square one?" 

"Maybe. He's doing a wider search for a match, but he didn't sound particularly hopeful. I still have a couple of people at the station that I wanted to look into though, so you never know."

"Thanks, Kono."

She nodded. "Toast and Chin just left my house, so you'd better get going to meet them at yours." 

"Right." Steve stood up, looking at Danny. "Let's go."

***

Chin and Toast were just pulling up as Steve pulled the Camaro into the drive. Danny let go of his grip on the door handle. "Hey, look, the house isn't on fire," he said, as he opened the door.

"What?"

"Usually the only reason people drive that fast is a fire."

Steve rolled his eyes at Danny as they met Chin and Toast at the door. "Anything at your place or Kono's?"

"Nothing," Chin said. 

"Well, Kono's wifi sucked," Toast said. "But I fixed that."

"Maybe you could focus on making sure we're not going to find some rather embarrassing videos or anything on the internet by checking my house?"

Toast looked around the living room as he pulled out some equipment. Steve, Danny and Chin watched silently as Toast roamed the house, going from room to room with machine that looked like something out of Star Trek. 

Eventually he put the machine away. "Clean," he said. "I'll check Jersey's, but my guess is whoever's behind this was relying on your phones."

"Did you check on Grover?"

Chin nodded. "Toast checked his phone but there was nothing."

Steve looked at Danny, who was biting the inside of his cheek. "So it was just your phone and mine," Steve said.

"And the HQ computer system," Danny reminded him. "Assuming those two things are related."

Steve frowned, considering it. "The coincidence is a little too much. They have to be related."

"Just because they're related doesn't mean they're the same person," Toast said.

Steve focused on Toast. "What?" 

He shrugged. "Your servers were hacked. But the phones were bugged. A hacker would've just hacked your phones to listen in. And that bug was super spy stuff. Government level bugs--not easy to come by and not cheap either. "

Steve thought for a moment. "Is there any way to tell how long the bugs have been in there?"

Toast shook his head. "They're not new, so they could've been put in anytime since you last opened the phone." 

"I dropped my phone three weeks ago and it came apart. There was no bug," Steve said. 

"Then that's your time frame," Toast said. "And if they had your phone physically, they wouldn't have had to hack it to get the texts, either. They could've just dumped the texts."

Which made Wright look less and less like their guy. "But how did they get to both our phones?" Steve asked.

"Surfing," Danny said after a moment. "Two weeks ago, we went surfing at Queen's Beach. We left our phones in the car."

"That's got to be it. If there were cameras near the car, we may have a chance to see who bugged them."

Chin had his phone out, headed for the door. "I'll have Kono pull up any cameras while we're on the way."

"Tell her to make it fast," Steve said, following close behind.

***

By the time they got to HQ, Kono had video up on the screen. "Hey," she said, as they walked in, "I think I found what we need."

She hit play, and Steve watched as a man walked up to the car like he owned it. He was smooth, Steve had to give him that--if he hadn't been looking for it he would've missed how the guy got into the car without a key. He sat down in the driver's seat and closed the door. Less than two minutes later he got out, locked the door, and walked away. 

"I feel like my car has been violated," Danny said. 

"Can you run facial rec?" Steve asked Kono.

She shook her head. "We don't get a good enough shot to run through the program, but we might be able to use it if we find someone to match it against."

Steve's phone rang, and he glanced at the screen, prepared to send it to voicemail in favor of chasing the lead, until he saw the name. "Joe," he said, holding up the phone before putting it to his hear. 

"Joe." Steve turned and went into his office. "Thanks for calling back."

"Sorry it took me so long," Joe said. "Someone's burned a couple of my CIA contacts lately."

"Yeah, well, if your CIA contacts wouldn't try to kill me, I wouldn't have to burn them."

"What?" 

Steve was surprised Joe didn't know. "It's been a long month," Steve said. He didn't have time to explain right now. "Do you have any news on Mom?"

"She's fine," Joe said. "The CIA got her out the second the news broke. They've got her well-hidden."

Steve let out a breath it felt like he'd been holding all day. "At least they can get something right," Steve muttered, leaning against his desk.

"I can see we need to catch up when you're done with this case," Joe said. "In the meantime, I wanted you to know that she's fine, but she can't come back to Hawaii. Not now. Too many people who want her dead know she's alive now."

"I know," Steve said as Danny walked in. He'd figured that out on the way to the governor's office that morning. "Tell her to take care of herself." _Something she excels at._

"I will. I'll call you if I find out anything else."

"Thanks, Joe."

Steve hung up and shoved the phone in his pocket as Danny came over to lean against the desk beside him. "Your mom okay?"

Steve nodded, swallowing against...something. Relief? Frustration? He wasn't even sure. "She's in protective custody."

"Which is code for not coming back here anytime in the foreseeable future."

He nodded again. "Not that I expected any different." 

Danny shifted, his arm pressed against Steve's, a warm, comforting weight. "Look on the bright side," Danny said. "You don't have to face her when our soon-to-be-infamous sexting scandal hits."

Steve laughed, leaning into Danny as he turned to look at him. "You have a--" Steve stopped, snapping his fingers. "What if that's the point?" he said.

"What, to keep her away from our scandal?"

"No, what if the point is to distract _me_ with a scandal so I can't help her?"

Danny frowned. "I don't follow."

"Think about it, Danny. She's exposed and running for her life. Anyone who's so much as read up on me is going to know I'm going to try to help her."

"But if you're distracted by your own problem, you're not going to be a lot of help."

"Exactly. And they may think that my scandal is going to further distract her." He huffed a laugh. "Clearly whoever it is doesn't know her that well, or they'd know better." 

Danny's face softened, and Steve had to turn away from the look there. "Only someone who cared about you would have grilled me as soundly as she did the first time I met her," Danny said, squeezing Steve's arm. "I mean, if I never saw Grace again, I'd love her as much in 30 years as I do now. And I'd never stop caring."

Steve cleared his throat, chancing a quick look at Danny's face. "You're not Doris."

"No. But we have one thing in common that I'm sure of. We both love you." 

The words made a warmth that was becoming familiar bubble up into Steve's chest, but the cloud of his mother dampened it. "She has a funny way of showing it." 

"Come on," Danny said, tugging on Steve's arm. "Let's go find this guy on the video so we can go home and forget about this day." 

***

Chin and Kono were doing a poor job of hiding that they'd been watching through the windows when Steve and Danny came back into the bullpen. "The guy my mom tortured," Steve said. "His name was Mangosta. See if you can find a picture to try to match up against the guy from the video."

"You think he might be the guy who bugged your phones?" Kono asked.

"I think that maybe this might be about Doris, not about us," Steve said. "And he's the one person from her past we know knew she was alive." 

"I'll see if I can find a picture," Chin said. 

Kono moved to the other side of the table. "I'm going to try to track our guy using cameras and see if I can figure out where he went after he broke into your car." 

"Let me know what you find," Steve said, pulling out his phone and moving away from the table a bit. 

"Who was this guy anyway?" Danny asked. 

"Doris was sent to assassinate him almost forty years ago," Steve said. "She was sure she'd completed her mission, but then he showed up here on the island, stalking her."

Danny frowned. "Stalking her?"

"Catherine found a safe in his hotel room with a false back. Behind it there were a bunch of pictures of her. He'd been tracking her."

"Why?" Danny asked. "What did he want?"

"I don't know. When Catherine found Doris, she was...interrogating Mangosta."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Interrogating him?"

"With a car battery," Steve said, his jaw clenched.

"I can't find much on this guy," Chin said. "It's like he's been erased."

"Too clean?" Steve asked, all too familiar with how well the government can erase someone they don't want people to find.

"Yeah. Way too clean."

Kono swiped a video onto the overhead monitors. "Okay, I tracked him to Kahala," she said, as the video showed a car driving through an area Steve vaguely recognized. "We lose him there," Kono said, as the car turned off onto a side road, "but I got a license plate, and it's a rental." 

"Is there an address for the rental?"

Kono nodded. "In Kahala. The car is rented to a Miguel Ortiz. The local address is a rental property a couple of blocks from where we lost him." 

"Then let's go."

***

Steve kept his focus on the road as he wound his way through early rush hour traffic, not looking at Danny. He knew that silence, the one Danny had been keeping since they'd left Steve's office. Of course, he also knew not to let that silence go on too long. 

"What?" Steve said finally, as he zipped around a box truck. 

He glanced over at Danny, who was watching Steve carefully. "What what?" Danny asked after a moment.

"Are we really gonna do this?" Steve said. "Because we've only got a few minutes until we get to Kahala, and I'd like to be done with this conversation by then."

"Okay," Danny said slowly, "I know that when it comes to cases involving your parents things get...difficult for you."

"It's not difficult, Danny. The guy exposed my mother and is threatening to expose us if we don't stop him before five. That seems pretty simple for me."

He didn't need to look at Danny to know the expression that went with that particular sigh. "You know what I mean," Danny said. "Just...remember when we get there that we don't know if he's the only one involved. And we need to know, all right?"

"I'm not going in there intent on killing him."

"I didn't say you were," Danny said quickly. "But your particular brand of McGarrett charm where bad guys and your parents are concerned is not the most conducive to getting said bad guys to talk. Just...remember that."

Steve rolled his eyes. He knew how to be delicate when he had to. "I'll tread lightly."

"Babe, those size elevens of yours wouldn't know how to tread lightly if they were filled with helium." 

***

The driveway was empty when they got to the house.

"Doesn't mean he's not in there," Danny reminded Steve as he prepared to go in. 

"I know. Don't worry," Steve said, flashing Danny a look. "I'll tread lightly."

Danny rolled his eyes, but he followed right behind Steve as they approached the back of the house. Steve was first in, clearing the rooms in the north corner of the house before meeting the others back in the center. "Clear," he said, having heard them all say the same. 

"Think he's taken off?" Chin asked.

Steve looked around. The place looked like no one was even renting it, except there had been clothes in the bedroom and toiletries in the bath. "If he did, he left in a hurry. And he has no reason to think he's compromised, so why would he take off without his clothes?"

"Maybe he's laying low until he releases the texts," Danny said.

"Maybe," Steve said. "Okay, tear the place apart. We know there was a false back in the safe he used at his hotel before and that was the only place there was any evidence. So be thorough."

Before they could even head for different rooms, a car pulled into the drive. Kono peeked out the window. "It's his car," she said, backing further into the room so he wouldn't see her. 

They moved into the hallway, Steve at the end, just close enough to see the door without giving away they were there when Mangosta walked in. He tensed, letting the adrenaline this kind of situation always gave him flow through his body, using it to focus, to be hyperaware of everything around him.

He heard the key in the lock, and the door swing open. He waited until the door was closed and Mangosta was far enough into the room before rushing out, gun aimed at center mass. "Five-O!" he shouted. "On the ground, now!"

Mangosta froze, and Steve could almost see the options going through the man's mind. Try the door or stay put. "You go for that door," Steve said, "and you'll have holes in both your legs before you can reach the doorknob."

After a few seconds, Mangosta dropped to his knees, putting his hands on his head. Steve kept his gun trained on Mangosta until Chin had him firmly handcuffed. 

"Kono," Steve said, "get Fong over here with people he trusts and have them tear this place apart."

He watched her nod as she pulled out her phone, knew she understood the implication--those texts and anything else they found should be kept close. Whatever secrets Mangosta had about him, his family, or anyone, would stay secret as long as he had anything to say about it. 

"'You'll have holes in both your legs before you can reach the doorknob'?" Danny murmured, standing close beside Steve. "Way to tread lightly."

"What? He's not dead. He's not even injured."

Danny just shook his head, but Steve didn't miss the small smile he tried to hide. "Animal."

Steve put a hand on Danny's shoulder to guide him to the door. "Come on, let's go see what he knows."

***

"Okay, Mangosta," Steve said, tension radiating through his body, "this is your last chance. Tell us who else is working with you."

Mangosta continued to stare at him silently, the way he'd been doing for the last hour. Nothing Steve had tried had gotten so much as a facial expression. It was like he'd shut down.

"Come on." Danny pulled on Steve's arm, leading him to the door. 

He let himself be led out, turning to face Danny once the door closed. "We have to get him to talk."

"That's clearly not going to happen."

"He'll crack eventually, Danny. "He just needs--"

"Steven, your mother tortured him with a car battery and he didn't talk! Now unless you have some super-secret government truth serum or something, I don't think he's going to say a word."

Danny was right. Steve hated the idea that he couldn't crack something or someone, but Danny was right. "Fuck," Steve said, scrubbing a hand over his eyes. That news story on his mother had only been seven hours ago, but it felt like seven years. "So, what," Steve said after a moment, "we just sit here and wait for five o'clock and see if our private lives are spilled everywhere?" 

"Maybe Fong and his team--"

Steve's phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket to see it was Kono calling. "Kono," he answered, leaving it on speaker so Danny could hear. "Please tell us you have something."

"Oh yeah," she said, "we found a lot. That tip about the false back in the safe was helpful. There were false bottoms in three of the kitchen cabinets. We might never have noticed if we weren't looking for it."

"What was in there?"

"A file on your mom and one on you, among other things." Her voice was softer as she said, "There was a print out of the texts in there. I'm the only one who saw it, and I didn't read it. I just saw it was texts with your names and put it back in the file."

Steve was even more grateful than usual for his team and their loyalty. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. There was a thumb drive, too. I'm assuming that's the digital backup, but Fong is checking it. His laptop was online, but we unhooked it, in case a program was set to auto-send the files at five. If that was his plan, it's screwed."

"Unless he had it on an cloud server or someone else was helping him." 

"We're going through the computer now to see if we can find any traces. I'll let you know what we find, but I wanted to tell you about the texts."

"Thanks, Kono." Knowing they had the right guy--or at least one of them--helped. "Let us know if you find anything else."

"Will do."

Steve hung up and pocketed his phone. "Okay," he said to Danny. "We're gonna go back in there, and you're going to tell him that we found everything at his house, and that our team tracked down his program to send out the texts and stopped it."

Danny frowned. "But we didn't find a program yet."

"Yeah, but if we're lucky, maybe he tips his hand. I'm going to watch for any sign that he doesn't know what we're talking about."

"And if it doesn't work and he thinks we know nothing?"

"You got a better plan?"

Danny bit his lower lip. "No," he said, after a moment, turning on his heel. "Let's go."

They went back into the room, where Mangosta was still doing an admirable impression of a robot. "This is your lucky day, Mangosta," Danny said. "We just got a call from our team. They found everything you had hidden--the files in the kitchen, the ones in the bathroom, the ones on your computer."

Steve saw a slight twitch at the mention of the bathroom. Almost imperceptible, but it gave him a baseline for what to look for when Danny said something incorrect.

"Our team also went through your computer and found your offsite server and stopped your automated send program. Those texts aren't going anywhere."

There was that twitch again. It wasn't enough to prove anything, but it made Steve feel a little better. 

"Oh, and your partner? Walked right into the police station and surrendered. We'll get everything we need."

That twitch was back, followed by a slight relaxation of his shoulders. Oh he was sure Danny was lying now. There was no partner.

Danny turned to Steve. "I think we're done here."

Steve nodded. "You stay put," he said to Mangosta. "Someone will come take you off to your new home at Halawa Correctional."

***

Danny suggested takeout on the way home, and Steve agreed. He didn't feel like cooking, but he didn't feel like being out in public, either. They sat out on the lanai and ate, and Steve soaked in the ocean and Danny's presence, let both of them calm his soul. 

"You okay?" Danny asked.

"Hm?"

Danny pointed at him with his beer bottle. "You've been really quiet. Not that you're normally chatty, but...this seems different. What's up?"

Steve shrugged, looking at out at the sun setting into the water. "I was just thinking."

"That's not comforting."

Steve rolled his eyes and gave Danny a bit of the laugh he knew Danny was looking for before he sobered again. "I was wondering if I'm ever going to stop stepping on all the landmines left behind by my parents. Is my whole life going to be spent dealing with their mistakes?"

"No. "

"It sure seems like it."

"Not your whole life. And whatever comes along, we'll fix it," Danny said. "Together."

"Aren't you the optimist all of a sudden?"

Danny shrugged. "I'm hopeful," he said. "I wouldn't go so far as to say optimistic." 

"I'll take what I can get."

"We will have to deal with the fact that this, that us...we're likely to be exposed sooner or later. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," Steve said softly. He didn't have a problem with that--he'd shout it from the rooftops. But he knew Danny's issues with believing that things would work out, and he knew what Grace would have to endure. For them, he would keep it secret as long as necessary. "But we'll deal with that tomorrow."

Something flashed across Danny's face, gone before Steve could tell what it was. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

Steve didn't know. But he wasn't going to push it. Not tonight. They'd had enough for one day.

***

Steve clawed his way out of sleep to the ringing of his cell phone on the nightstand. He reached for it before his eyes were even open, the reaction automatic. "McGarrett?" he said into the phone as he opened his eyes.

"Commander, I was hoping to get a statement from you on your alleged sexual relationship with your second in command, Detective Williams."

Steve was wide awake in an instant, sitting up in bed. "Who is this?" 

He recognized the reporter's name and her paper, which was not comforting--this likely wasn't a hack sniffing around rumors. "Can I get a comment on the texts that were released this morning between you and Detective Williams? What's your--"

He hung up, tossing the phone onto the night stand as Danny's started to ring. "Don't answer it," Steve barked out as Danny reached for the phone. "Unless you recognize the number, don't answer it."

Danny looked at the screen and shook his head, rejecting the call as he sat up. "What happened?"

"We must have missed something," Steve said, staring at Danny's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Danny, I thought we'd covered all our bases, but he beat us."

"Slow down, babe," Danny says, one hand moving up to Steve's face, his touch gentle but insistent, forcing Steve to look him in the eye. "Who beat us?"

"Mangosta. The texts...Danny, the texts are out."

Danny took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay. Okay...so...we deal with it." 

"But Grace--"

"Yeah, we gotta go over there now and talk to her," Danny said, pushing back the covers and getting out of bed. "We need to explain what's going on before she hears it from someone else.

"And then?"

Danny picked up his pants and turned around, giving Steve a strange look. "That's up to you," he said, his voice odd.

"I thought it was a relationship thing." 

Danny eyed him for a long moment. "Only if you still want it to be one."

"What?"

Danny shrugged. "We can deny it, we can go our separate ways and say it was all made up to get back at us."

For a moment, Steve didn't even know what to say to that. "Why," he asked slowly, "would we want to do that?"

"You were the one who was so keen to keep it quiet." Danny's voice was quiet, his eyes hidden as he put on his pants. "I thought maybe you were looking for your way out," he said with a shrug. 

"Really? That's what this is?" Steve's hands were on Danny's shoulders almost before his feet hit the floor. "Look at me, Danny."

He waited until Danny's eyes were firmly focused on his before he continued. "I told the Governor that I wouldn't give in," Steve said. "That I'm not ashamed of this. That was my first reaction when he showed me the texts. And I'm not ashamed. I don't give a shit what people think. I just want you and Grace to be happy. And I don't want this to cause either of you problems. That's all I was worried about."

He held his breath until Danny finally nodded. "Okay," Danny said.

"You're sure?" Steve asked, a cold, dark feeling stealing in from the corner of his brain. "We're not going to have to cover this again? Because I get that you have issues with thinking things are going to work out, so maybe that was your way of not having to worry about it by finding a reason to get out of this."

"No. I'm in this," Danny said quickly, sincerely. "I'm not going anywhere."

Steve let out a shaky breath. "Okay."

"Okay," Danny repeated. "Then I'll call Grace and tell her we're on the way over. You call Kyla. Tell her we're going public and see who she thinks we should talk to."

Steve reached for his phone, but Danny stilled his hand. "Might want to put some clothes on first," he said. 

"It's not like Kyla can see through the phone."

"Were you on that conversation with her yesterday?" Danny asked. 

Steve thought about it. "Good point." He pulled on his pants, listening as Danny called and told Rachel the short version, ending with the fact that they were on their way over and to keep Grace away from the news until they got there.

When he was done, he looked at Steve, who was still shirtless. "Come on, we gotta go," Danny said.

"We're really doing this, aren't we?" Steve said, as it sunk in. No hiding, no secrets. The whole world would know they were together. 

"Still time to change your mind."

Steve shook his head instantly. "Not a chance." He pulled his shirt over his head and then pulled Danny in for a kiss. "Come on," he said, grabbing Danny's hand and leading him to the door. "Let's do this."

\---  
END

**Author's Note:**

> Want to learn more about me and my writing? Visit my page at <http://www.jamiemeadowswrites.com/>


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